New fintech Posible.net empowers Pinoys MSMEs digitally

February 14, 2018

VENUS Santos is a sari-sari store owner from Paco, Manila took her dream of expanding her humble business digitally. With one single device, her store’s services now include utility bills payment, select government fees, money services, micro-insurance, mobile loading, online gaming credits, and even ticketing.

“I am very happy about the change that it brought to my store. Now I can offer digital services that bring convenience to my customers.” Santos said.

The digital transformation Santos and 1,600 other retailers all over the country experienced became possible through Posible.net. An aggregator of digital services and an upgrade to small businesses, Posible.net was officially launched last January 24.

“We are excited for what 2018 has to offer to our growing number of retailers, consumers and partners, and I believe that now is the perfect time to tell everyone about how we are empowering the Filipino MSMEs (Micro and Small to Medium Enterprises),” said JG Puzon, President and CEO of Posible.net.

The company looked ahead to a year full of possibilities, going with the theme “Empowering the Filipino MSMEs of Today.” Founded two years ago, it currently offers more than 300 digital services to over a million Filipino consumers and has already generated close to P2 billion worth of transactions.

“We have been hitting milestones since we started operating in 2016,” Puzon shares.

Posible.net’s digital transactions platform converts the brick-and-mortar store into a click-to-order one. It is designed to help small and medium entrepreneurs in the country, making it the preferred partner of sari-sari stores, laundromats, bakeries, barber shops, and other community-based businesses.

Accessed via the user-friendly Posible device, its comprehensive payment services include a confirmation receipt for each transaction, gaining the trust of consumers.

“MSMEs promote advancements in the economy by facilitating entrepreneurial development and they also broaden the scope of economic activity because MSMEs are highly dispersed so even in rural areas. We also see MSMEs as catalysts for inclusions as they create employment opportunities,” Jenny A. Romero, bank officer at the Banco Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)’s Inclusive Finance Advocacy Office, as she described the important role of MSMEs to the economy.

“It is a good business model for someone who wants to start a business and for those with an existing one, it is a good way of enhancing what a small entrepreneur is earning,” DTI Undersecretary Zeny Maglaya said as she shared the 7Ms needed for to be a successful entrepreneur. These are mindset, mastery, mentoring, money, machines, market, and models of business. According to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), 563 out of 1,634 cities and municipalities are “unbanked.” Given this, Puzon believes Posible.net plays an important role in attaining financial inclusion in the Philippines by bringing digital transactions closer to all communities. Financial inclusion has been defined by BSP as “a state wherein there is effective access to a wide range of financial products and services by all.

“These small enterprises make up for a majority of the businesses in the country, yet they are fragmented and thus have no bargaining power. By putting them all in a single agnostic platform, with no corporate agenda in mind because we do not have our own product, it is our aim to unify them and empower them individually and as a group,” Puzon explained that from conception to design to execution, Posible.net had the MSMEs in mind. The main goal of the platform is making financial inclusion happen rapidly and immersively.

“The BSP has been looking at digital means to fasttrack and expand our financial reach. 34% of towns and cities in the Philippines still do not have access to banks. The National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI) defines a national vision for financial inclusion, provides a platform for public-private sector coordination, convergence and synergy of efforts to achieve shared objectives,” Romero added.

Posible.net is working to make the technology readily available to all barangays and community stores so that they would be able to do digital transactions and spur economic growth.

“Our objective is to penetrate more areas, especially those where banks and payment centers are minimal or nonexistent. The platforms we built over the years brought financial technology to many communities, but still, only the big businesses were able to realize the advantages,” Puzon said.

As a result, Posible.net was recognized as one of the Top 15 ventures in Asia at the DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge held in Singapore last September 2017, an annual competition to determine the most innovative ideas and enterprises. It was the sole Philippine entry in the Enterprise category.

“Our goal is to bring the innovations to the broader base of Filipinos, a type of inclusion wherein every Filipino enjoys the convenience and benefits of emerging technology.” - RGBT

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